The Season of Swag

A normal season visits us for only a few months, usually just long enough to over-stay its welcome. Toward the end of its stay, it acts like a teenager in puberty going through an identity crisis. Summer begins to question whether or not it should become Fall, and if so, then when, for crying out loud? Winter is never quite ready to turn the reigns over to Spring. And Spring is the most cruel hussy of all, running hot and cold so often you think it might actually be pregnant. It. Gets. Irritating.

But not the season of Swag. No, everybody loves Swag. Swag is consistent, steady, a giving season. Swag doesn't dictate what you wear, or how much moisturizer you knead into your face. It certainly doesn't encourage runny noses or mosquitoes or hurricanes. Nope, Swag is the season to put all other seasons to shame.

And the best part? Swag lasts for an entire year, right up until the release of my YA debut, The Gift of Poseidon. The Gift of Poseidon (TGOP) is set to release in Spring of 2012. Now, we already mentioned what a bipolar season Spring is. And what's worse, we're talking about Spring in NYC, which I've heard trespasses into the Summer months, by Florida standards (Summer starts in March, people!).

So there's no telling when Swag will end. But at least we know when it begins: Ten seconds ago. And to start it off right, I'm giving away the entire The Wolves of Mercy Falls trilogy, by Maggie Stiefvater. In hardcover. Ohhhh, yes, they shall be hardcover.

To participate in the Season of Swag (and therefore be eligible to win, you know, swag) you must do this:

1.) Become a follower of my blog.
2.) Follow me on Twitter.
3.) Tweet about the Season of Swag and include my Twitter handle (@ByAnnaBanks) so I can confirm you've been a good little Tweeter and followed the oh-so-easy rules.

In two weeks, I'll enlist Random.org pick my winner. In addition, the winner of each monthly giveaway will also qualify for a chance to win the Grand Swag: A mountain of all things TGOP, including a hardcover copy signed by MOI.

And remember, this is just the beginning. For the rest of Swag Season, be on the lookout for more book giveaways, including more series and some signed copies, gift cards, and critiques.

So, no matter if you're in Mexico, Greenland, or NYC, 'tis the season of Swag!

 

CROSSING OVER, PART 2 (THE OFFER!)

My last post was about the ups and downs (but mostly ups) about tricking an agent into thinking you can write and letting her submit this trickery to editors. This post is about what comes next.

So...You're submitted. You're chewing your nails. You're not sleeping. It's been a few weeks. (Okay, mine was two weeks out on submission before we got an offer, but I'm told that's rare. I've heard of novels selling within a day, though. Then again, I've heard of them never selling. For all intents and purposes, we'll say it's now been a few weeks.) But you don't mind, because you're used to waiting, right? WRONG. You're going freaking nuts. You're feeling bad about tricking your agent, and putting her reputation on the line like that. But you're too proud to tell her.

Anyway, after a few weeks, you get an email from your agent that says OFFER! CALL ME! You squeal inappropriately in the doctor's office waiting room, then proceed to call her in front of God and everybody. She gives you the details of the offer, which are specific, and some of which you wouldn't have even thought to negotiate. This is where you realize just how badly you really do need an agent. You get this feeling of awe that two professionals in the pub industry were discussing your work this morning without your knowledge. You're amazed that Fantabulous Agent was busying negotiating and hard-balling on your behalf while you were eating oatmeal for breakfast and escorting your elderly mother to the doctor. Sigh.

Fantabulous Agent then tells you all the reasons she thinks you should/should not accept the offer. In my case, the editor wanted to pre-empt my book, which means that she wanted to know what it would take to get it off the table at other houses. Sometimes an offer can lead to an auction if you notify other editors, but in this case we decided to go with the pre-empt. (Note: There are many reasons for doing this. Weighing in on the pros and cons of each scenario sounds like a great blogpost in and of itself, so be on standby!).

Soon after, you get a phone call from your editor(s). They tell you how excited they are to work on your book (and with you) and they tell you everything they love about it. THEN comes the editorial letter. The editorial letter is a honey-do list of things that do not work for them. Mine was four pages long. Single-spaced. (Note: I've heard of them being as short as one page, or longer than ten, so this is...wait for it...subjective). You're wondering why they bothered to buy it in the first place. You feel the only thing they didn't change was the names of the characters (note: sometimes they DO change the names of the characters, so get ready). When you email Fantabulous Agent the editorial letter, she'll probably tell you to read it through a couple times, then sleep on it a couple times. Then rinse and repeat. This advice is priceless.

After a week of stewing and percolating, I realized that the changes were GENIUS. They didn't tell me how to fix things, they just told me what wasn't working. Which means I had the freedom to be creative, to come up with my own brilliant solutions. This challenged me as a writer and lemme tell you, it made my book ten times better. Also, there were items on the list that they wanted to change, but I wanted to keep (not many, mind you). After I explained my stance on the issues, they agreed to let those items stay. This is where you will appreciate the gift of compromise. It means you trust your editors' professional opinion and respect their stake in your work. And it means they trust your ability as a writer. Whew! 'Cause for a minute there...

So, you turn in your renovated manuscript and wait for their feedback. What comes next is for a different post. Happy Monday!

Crossing Over

When I asked yous guys what you wanted me to blog about the most, many of you said you want to know what happens after you get an agent. So that's what today's post will entail, in order of events:

You accept an offer of rep from an agent. You're on cloud ninety-nine. All your hard work has paid off. Now you can just sit back and...Yeah, not so much. While your agent was/is ecstatic about your project, it doesn't mean it's ready to send off to ye editors. Ideally, you will have discussed this sort of thing *before* you accept the offer of rep, but if not, then NOW is when you talk about the possible revisions and tweaking your MS might need. Depending on the extent of the remodel, it will take a few weeks to a month or more to sculpt it into submittable shape. *Note: Lucy requested minor changes, which I made within a week. Each situation/time frame will be different. You will get tired of hearing me say this.

Now that your baby has been through MS boot camp, it's ready to go to war, vying in the big arena for the attention of editors. You are excited about this. You can't sleep at night. You accidentally put the milk in the cabinet and the cereal in the fridge, and you don't remember driving to work but you must have because you're pulling into the parking spot that you'll soon come to loathe. Your relationship with your agent feels like that of a newlywed, all googly-eyed and rose-colored bifocals and such. It will be difficult to remember that she is your business partner instead of your bestest friend in the whole entire snuggly world. Seriously. But you won't have time for this mushy-gushy-cuddle-muffin stuff because...

Probably you'll be having another phone conversation with your dream agent about where she'll be submitting, and the strategy she'll be using. You'll want to know how long it will take to hear back from these editors. She won't be able to tell you. This won't be because she's not fantabulous--because trust me, she's fantabulous. It's just that this business is...wait for it...subjective. Some editors will read it right away. Some won't get to it for a month, maybe more. Like agents, editors don't have time to sit around all day and read submissions. Much of their reading, like agents, is done on the weekend.

You'll ask Fantabulous Agent what you should be doing while these editors are reviewing your work. Fantabulous Agent will say...wait for it...keep writing. So, aside from the floaty, euphoric feeling of having a professional cheerleader on your side talking up you and your project, the whole process of submitting to editors is much like the query process we go through to snag Incredible Agent. You still watch your email obsessively. You still feel like maybe you're not good enough. You still bite your nails and curse yourself for ruining a perfectly good French mani.

And you still have to wait. So, to harden you up for this process, I'm making you wait for the next blogpost to find out what happens when you get "the other call". ("The call" is, and always will be, reserved for agents.)

Happy Monday!

Are You Ready to Tell People About Your Book?

Many of you already know that agents ask for different things in a query letter. Some simply ask for the query letter, some ask for the query and the first five pages, while others ask for the query, a synopsis, and the first three chapters. But what they ALL ask for is a well-written blurb that describes your book. Nathan Bransford, a former literary agent, discusses one-sentence, one-paragraph, and two-paragraph pitches here.

As difficult as writing a good query letter is, I'm finding that telling people about my book is harder than writing about it. To the point where, when someone asks what my book is about, I say, "It's about mermaids." They usually return this indulgent looks that tells me I should have at least added an expletive or two to make it more interesting, since I didn't take the time to manipulate my plot into an informal blurb. But writers, you NEED this. You need to be able to tell people about it, to make a memorable impression for reasons other than awkwardness.

Complete strangers who hear you talking to your daughter about your book. Bookstore managers with whom you're trying to arrange an in-store signing. Friends and frenemies, acquaintances, relatives and twice-removed cousins. You need to be able to pique their interest verbally, and sound freaking cool while doing it. You can fling a bagillion marketing dollars at your book, but word of mouth will always be more effective in selling it than the prettiest internet ad.

It will take practive. It might take some wine. But get ready. You should be the best person to ask about your book. "It's about mermaids" = writer fail. So, by the end of the week, I hereby promise to have an interesting informal-sounding pitch, AND I promise to use it on at least 10 new people.

What about you? Are you ready to tell people about your book?

You Tell Me

Okay friends, I need your input. I'm about to go to line editing with OF POSEIDON in a couple of weeks, but I don't want to be so erratic with my blog posts. My goal is to have a batch of ready-made posts for your reading pleasure during this time, some cut and paste goodies I can write in advance. When I sat down to make a list of topics, I felt a little silly, with three things on the list and all. So I thought I'd ask you. What questions do you have about the publishing process? Is there anything that concerns you right now? What do you need help with the most?

You tell me. Ask and you shall receive...

P.S. Tomorrow, stop by http://authoraghoward.blogspot.com/ for my author interview. Anita Howard is my gracious hostess, and she is one of US--a slush pile find with an awesome novel on submission to editors AS WE SPEAK! :) And while you're over there, check out her book trailer!

I'm Baaaaaack!

Sorry for the long silence--I had to ask for a tiny extension on my revisions due to a surprise root canal. I love surprises. Just not when they're root canals... Soooo. About the revisions (which are offically completed and turned in). I know I mentioned before about the 4 page editorial letter. I thought it was mostly minor issues, tweaking, re-touching. But when I went back through the MS with fresh eyes, I realized it was major revisions, and some of those not even in the editorial letter. In a way, I performed a root canal on my MS. It was still mostly my original, but I gutted it and re-made it, only better and stronger than the original. I cut 18k words and wrote 17k words to replace those. I cut scenes I loved, but they did nothing to move the plot forward. Then I replaced them with scenes I loved more, scenes that worked like a donkey for the plot. And I'm really, really excited about it. I wanted to share something I found very helpful in this process. I created an excel spreadsheet to document my revisions. The left colum indicated the chapter number. The middle column told a short synopsis of the content of each chapter. The right one indicated what needed to be changed in that chapter, if anything. As I went through and revised, I replaced what needed to be changed with a description of what actually changed, and I notated the page numbers for reference. This will help you when you turn in your revised MS--outlining all the changes for your editor saves him/her a big chunk of time for the re-read. What about you? What editing advice do you have? I'd love to know!

Progress Check

Sorry for the long silence. Though I intend to keep this post short and sweet (and you'll see why in a minute), I want to thank everyone for cheering for me and for all the congratulations. In keeping true to my word in blogging about the process, here is what I've learned about the publishing industry so far: It isn't always slow.

I've already received my first editorial letter (four pages, single spaced!) and I've already had my first pow wow with the editors about it. My silence is because I'm working to get the revisions done by April 1st. This will likely be my last post until then.

For those of you new to writing, you need to be prepping that rhino skin right now, so that it's fully developed when you hit this stage. So that when you receive a four page, single spaced letter telling you everything that DOESN'T work about your book, you'll be able to look it objectively. I'm not saying I didn't fall out of my chair, and partly because of a certain comment made about a certain scene which still has me blushing, but I'm just saying that you need to have skin thick enough to open the document without crying or being rushed to the ER. That's all. You need to collect some critique partners so that your wounds are calloused over by the time you hit this stage in the game. (BTW, it's a lot to take in at first, but really truly all of the editorial input I received was so on-point that I could hardly argue how much better it would make the book. By the end of the phone conference, I felt this overwhelming sense of appreciation for landing in such good hands with Feiwel and Friends, not to mention Lucy!)

Okay so, since my last post, this has happened:

1.) Mom back in the hospital.
2.) Editorial letter.
3.) Meeting with editors about said editorial letter.
4.) Computer crashed.
5.) Got the stinking flu.
6.) Got a new computer.
7.) Mom out of the hospital.
8.) Revisions, revisions, revisions.
9.) Beginning this week, I will be tranporting my sister to cardiac rehab 3xweek, for at least the next month.
10.) Editor needed author bio and author pic RIGHT AWAY for promotional packages to sell international rights at Bologna Children's Book Fair THIS MONTH!

Also, did I mention I work full time? And so, that is why I haven't been blogging. Please forgive me! But please don't blog flog me for not posting until after April 1st!

Thanks again for all the support, and I hope my erradic posts are still encouraging.